Departmental Public Expenditure

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2008,  Official Report, column 1689W, on departmental public expenditure, for what reason the expired vaccines were not used, broken down by type of vaccine.

Dawn Primarolo: Changes in vaccination policy can result in changes to the vaccines offered in the routine childhood immunisation programme. While we aim to keep vaccine wastage to a minimum, such policy changes can lead to some vaccines being written off if they are no longer used in the routine programme.
	The reasons why expired vaccines were not used are listed as follows.
	Some BCG vaccine was written off following the change in BCG vaccination policy in 2005. The programme changed from a universal to targeted programme, leading to a reduction in demand.
	In 2005 demand for MMR vaccine increased following the mumps outbreaks in older teenagers. For a short period, the suppliers could only provide additional supplies of MMR vaccine destined for other countries, and hence with different product labelling than UK stock. Even though the vaccine itself was identical to UK licensed product, the labelling difference meant that the vaccine was not licensed for use in the UK. Once further supplies of UK licensed vaccine were received, the unlicensed MMR vaccine was no longer used, leading to write off.
	In 2004 vaccines containing live oral polio were removed from the childhood programme and replaced with three new combination vaccines containing an inactivated polio vaccine. This resulted in the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine; and the tetanus and diphtheria (Td) vaccine becoming redundant.
	In 2003 a major Hib catch up campaign was launched using a single antigen Hib (haemophilus influenzae type B) vaccine. This vaccine is not used routinely in the childhood programme, and some stock left over from the Hib catch-up campaign date expired in 2006-07.